McCaul Helps Secure Pre-Positioned Federal Aviation Assets to Fight Wildfires-Will Investigate Lack of Prior Pre-Positioning, Cumbersome Aid Process

AUSTIN, TX – One of two DC-10’s and half of the military’s fleet of eight C-130’s are now indefinitely pre-positioned in Texas to fight wildfires, National Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell assured Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX) after McCaul expressed deep concerns about delayed response to the Bastrop fires. The Forest Service committed to keep the DC-10 and C-130’s stationed at Austin Bergstrom International Airport for the foreseeable future while fire danger remains high.

“We’ve known and Washington has known that Texas has been a tinderbox for months. The right approach is to have federal aviation assets strategically prepositioned to deploy within hours instead of days,” said Congressman McCaul. “This has to be a priority moving forward and I plan to explore this in an oversight hearing.” Rep. McCaul plans a hearing into the overall response to the fires before the subcommittee he chairs, which oversees all Department of Homeland Security operations.

“While everyone has worked feverishly to save lives andproperty, I am greatly concerned by the cumbersome protocols in place for requesting assistance,” Rep. McCaul said. “In my estimation they prevented firefighting assets from being utilized, even when fires were at zero percent containment and people were desperate. Help should be a phone call away, not an act of Congress.”

NOAA and NASA predicted long-term drought and fire issues in Texas several months ago. Yet the White House denied repeated requests from the State of Texas to approve ongoing disaster declarations, no federal aviation assets were pre-positioned and no large private assets were under exclusive contract.

The DC-10 that sat idle on the tarmac in Austin for days until it was deployed to fight wildfires could have been operational much sooner had the National Forest Service agreed to an exclusive use contract with 10 Tanker, which owns the DC-10, or other private firefighting services that utilize converted wide-body jetliners.

Exclusive use agreements would contractually obligate tanker planes such as 10 Tanker’s DC-10’s long-term. In turn, the agreement would ensure a revenue stream, allowing the company to hire extracrews who are on standby and to build multiple fire retardant loading systems within striking distance of the most fire-prone areas.

“When I toured Waller County they said the DC-10 was like ‘the Cavalry coming in’ and it made a difference in Bastrop in the run it made before it was diverted. Had it been on the ground here a week ago it would have made a huge difference,” McCaul said.

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